IGY Marinas Employee Spotlight: Mike Revier – VP of Operations Caribbean & Americas

 Where did your fascination with the sea come from?

One of my biggest influences as a kid was my grandfather. His name was Jack and he was a jack of all trades. For a time, he lived in a little bungalow on Barnegat Bay in New Jersey. I would stay there often in the summers when I was around 10-12 years old, sleep on the couch, and wake up to the smell of the ocean and the view of the sunrise.  We would fish, fix boats, and play cards. Looking back, that was a big source of my passion for the water.

What was your first job in the marina industry?

After college I spent a summer in a cubicle at an engineering firm. Being stuck inside all day, I realized this wasn’t the kind of work I was looking for. I had to reset. So, I applied to a local marina and a local airport, because they both seemed like more interesting places to be, and the boatyard called me first.

I started off as a yard hand, painting boat bottoms and doing minor repairs, and I had a knack for polishing and detailing. I quickly gained experience in different areas like outboard repair, marine electrical, fiberglass work, varnishing, and even learned to operate the travel lift. It wasn’t long until, I started doing coastal yacht deliveries and bought an old sailboat. A couple years later and I earned my USCG Master License and logged several thousand blue-water miles along the U.S. East Coast and throughout the Caribbean and worked as a technical manager for a large yacht club in New York Harbor.

In the maritime world, there’s a metaphor ‘coming up through the hawsepipe’ to explain how a seaman advances from entry level crew to be an officer. My professional journey has been something like this.

 How did you discover IGY?

In the winter of 2012, I was captaining a modest sailboat owned by a yacht club in the Virgin Islands for a few months and the boss said, ‘I want you to pick me up  at IGY Yacht Haven Grande in St Thomas,’ It was in a 42ft, 50 year old Sparkman & Stevens  ketch that I had pieced back together, nothing fancy at all, and I was arriving in this prestigious, flagship IGY marina, but I was made to feel so welcome by the staff there, especially Gili Wojnowich, IGY’s Vice President of Operations and Yacht Services who was the marina manager at the time. I thought “this was a company I wanted to be a part of!” It had global reach, high standards, and a pipeline for career progression.

When I got back to NYC, I applied to IGY and I was given an opportunity to join as a Dockmaster at a former IGY marina in Jersey City, New Jersey, later that year. Within the first month on the job, the marina was hit by Superstorm Sandy which brought a storm surge of 15ft above normal high tide to New York Harbor. I had to manage the property through the storm and its aftermath as the senior person on site as there was no GM at the time. It was a baptism by fire, but we came through reasonably well. I was given the General Manager job a few weeks after.

How has your career developed at IGY?

I gained valuable experience overseeing operations in Jersey City and Montauk and soon was offered a job to take over the marina at Yacht Haven Grande USVI (where I first experienced IGY hospitality!), so I relocated to St. Thomas for a few years before returning back to the northeast U.S as Regional Manager, and subsequently, U.S. East Coast Regional Manager. I then went on to become Vice President of Operations for the Americas and Caribbean last year.

What does your current role involve?

Previously, as a Regional Manager I looked after a smaller set of properties and it was more local and routine. Now my responsibilities are similar, but the scope has expanded significantly both geographically and operationally. I’m much more frequently collaborating with our corporate leadership and support staff as well as working directly with our fantastic local operations teams across the region. I work on business strategy, team development, revenue management, regulatory compliance, new business opportunities, risk management, sales & marketing, capex planning, the list goes on – the same things we all do in operations really.  It’s very varied and that’s what I love about it.

What do you enjoy most?

Doing the hard things, the creative things, fixing things, solving things, having a grasp of the big picture. I like to roll up my sleeves and dive into problems, and I love to get out onto the facilities and work directly with the people who are working hard for the company every day. If I can find a way to make their job better and more effective and improve the customer experience – that feels great!

 You have a very hands-on approach. How important is this at IGY?

I love any excuse to get dirty, and I like to be hands-on with specific projects, but I try to delegate and let others take initiative as much as practical.  Marina operations are so varied and dynamic, it seems challenges come from all directions sometimes. So having a team of self-starters and problem-solvers is critical. We don’t have a playbook for everything, and the best solutions often come from the people closest to the problems. Any person who shows initiative and diligence absolutely can shine in this company. This is what I love about IGY.

What is your biggest challenge?

Probably staying connected to the team when working remote. I may only get to any one facility in-person a couple times per year, and often those visits are shorter than I’d like them to be. This is the hardest part. I wish I could be everywhere all the time – everyone I visit is so welcoming and I enjoy being at the marinas very much. Fortunately, I know the facilities and my colleagues well, so it’s still easy to work together even through a computer screen.

 What do you do in your downtime?

Don’t have much of that!  I have three young kids so when I’m not working it’s a lot of cooking, cleaning, and everyday adventures. As a family we love to travel, spend time in NYC, and we keep a boat on the Jersey Shore. When I do get time to myself, I like to pick up a good book.

If you had access to any yacht in the world for two weeks, what would you do and where would you go?

I’d grab an exploration yacht that had all the best toys, tenders, and a mini submarine (and a spa for my wife), load it up with as many friends and family it could possibly handle, and take is somewhere remote and warm in the south pacific or maybe the Galapagos.

What is a lesser-known fact about you that would surprise your colleagues?

I recently started riding enduro dirtbikes, I studied philosophy in college, I love the theatre, and I once rode a bicycle nearly 400 miles from Los Angeles to Pheonix to impress a girl (it didn’t work).